POWER RANKING: The 15 best US cities for women business owners to land funding, grow their network, and earn more than men

Anchorage, AlaskaBlue Poppy

• A new report by small business financial marketplace Fundera ranked the top 15 US cities for women business owners.
• Several of the best places for women who want to start and grow businesses are located in the western and southern US,
• Seattle, Orlando, and Scottsdale ranked high on the list, offering female founders strong networks, low earnings gaps, and high-skilled workforces.
• However, not every city is paradise. Some have high housing costs that make them unattainable to most.

Women who want to start and grow successful businesses may have better luck in western and southern cities like Seattle, Orlando, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Those cities have a strong network of women business owners, low earnings gaps, and high-skilled workforces, according to a new report by small business financial marketplace Fundera.

Fundera's report was released mid-August and ranked the top 15 cities for women entrepreneurs. To compile the report, the financial marketplace compared the percent of self-employed business owners who are women, percent of women who are employed in their own business, earning gaps between male and female business owners, housing cost as a percent of earnings for female entrepreneurs, percent of residents with a bachelor's degree (denoting high-skilled workforce), job growth, and tax rates.

While the share of women-owned businesses has grown in the last 50 years — jumping from 4.6% in 1972 to 42% in 2019, according to American Express — female entrepreneurs still face hurdles like access to funding.

Here are the 15 cities where women are getting the support necessary to grow successful companies.